WikiLeaks Founder ‘Detained in Absentia’ in Swedish Rape Probe

A Swedish judge has ordered WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange “detained in absentia” to answer questions in a rape and coercion investigation in Stockholm, prosecutors announced Thursday.

The investigation stems from encounters Assange had with two women during his visit to Sweden last August, where he was applying for Swedish residency and attempting to secure the protection of Swedish free-press laws for his secret-spilling website. According to local news reports, the woman told investigators the sexual encounters began as consensual, but turned non-consensual when Assange refused to stop despite condom mishaps.

Assange has denied any wrongdoing, and hinted that the complaints are the result of a U.S. plot against WikiLeaks — leading some supporters of the group to publicly investigate the two women and their families.

Swedish Director of Prosecution Marianne Ny will next seek an international arrest warrant for Assange, according to a statement on the prosecutors’ website. Assange had left Sweden with the permission of the government, and then turned up in London in October, where he unveiled nearly 400,000 leaked U.S. Army documents from the Iraq war. His last public appearance was at a U.N. conference in Geneva earlier this month.

In a statement Thursday, Assange’s U.K. counsel said that his client repeatedly offered to cooperate with investigators while he was in Sweden, and has offered to answer questions remotely from the U.K. since then.

“We are now concerned that prosecutor Marianne Ny intends to apply for an arrest warrant in an effort to have Mr. Assange forcibly taken to Sweden for preliminary questioning,” wrote attorney Mark Stephens. “Despite his right to silence, my client has repeatedly offered to be interviewed, first in Sweden before he left, and then subsequently in the UK (including at the Swedish Embassy), either in person or by telephone, videoconferencing or e-mail and he has also offered to make a sworn statement on affidavit. All of these offers have been flatly refused by a prosecutor who is abusing her powers by insisting that he return to Sweden at his own expense to be subjected to another media circus that she will orchestrate. Pursuing a warrant in this circumstance is entirely unnecessary and disproportionate.”

The attorney did not say whether Assange would turn himself in on a warrant. Another statement put out on WikiLeaks’ Twitter feed notes that Assange is “busy.”

“Since the false allegations made about him in Sweden this August Julian has also needed to work extremely hard at ensuring the smear campaign launched against him has not affected the WikiLeaks brand,” read the statement, attributed to unnamed WikiLeaks staff.